Get classic Mint desktop in Gnome shell

[esteban1uy]

Well, everything was working nicely with Esteban's tweaks, but the latest updates must have undone it all. After a reboot I'm back to having a bar at the top and the bottom again. Yuck! How can I get my nice single bottom bar back again?

First of all, you have to "diagnose" your extensions.
Press simultaneously your Alt and F2 keys, type lg at the prompt and look at the Errors pane in the opened LookingGlass (then press Esc to exit LookingGlass). At that pane you'll find very useful information about what's going wrong with your extensions.
You may also check the loading order of your extensions (reflections should always be the last one).
Please take note and post your findings here.

[zerubbabel]

First of all, you have to "diagnose" your extensions.
Press simultaneously your Alt and F2 keys, type lg at the prompt and look at the Errors pane in the opened LookingGlass (then press Esc to exit LookingGlass). At that pane you'll find very useful information about what's going wrong with your extensions.
You may also check the loading order of your extensions (reflections should always be the last one).
Please take note and post your findings here.

This is what happens: Could not open location 'file:///home/zerubbabel/lg'

Also, I'm not actually back to the original Mint 12 desktop. There is an Applications and a Places menu at the top, with a centered date and time, and indicators at the right, but I do not get the standard Gnome 3 behavior. The "Windows" key doesn't do anything either. And the Gnome Tweak tool is not available via the Applications menu.

[esteban1uy]

This is what happens: Could not open location 'file:///home/zerubbabel/lg'

Also, I'm not actually back to the original Mint 12 desktop. There is an Applications and a Places menu at the top, with a centered date and time, and indicators at the right, but I do not get the standard Gnome 3 behavior. The "Windows" key doesn't do anything either. And the Gnome Tweak tool is not available via the Applications menu.

That is not Gnome-shell!!!

Are you completely sure you're logged in Gnome (full) mode?
That sounds like Gnome classic (aka fallback) to me.

Did you check the right option at the "gear" at login prompt?

[zerubbabel]

That is not Gnome-shell!!!

Are you completely sure you're logged in Gnome (full) mode?
That sounds like Gnome classic (aka fallback) to me.

Did you check the right option at the "gear" at login prompt?

I had never made a choice from the "gear" at the login prompt, but had always taken the default. Now when I click on the gear, the only options are Gnome Classic, Gnome Classic (no effects), MATE, and Ubuntu. There is no option for Gnome Shell.

So I'm using MATE at the moment...

[esteban1uy]

I had never made a choice from the "gear" at the login prompt, but had always taken the default. Now when I click on the gear, the only options are Gnome Classic, Gnome Classic (no effects), MATE, and Ubuntu. There is no option for Gnome Shell.

So I'm using MATE at the moment...

That's really weird... and certainly not caused by updated extensions nor tweaks!!!
I never heard of something like that. Even in systems with unsupported graphics cards the Gnome-shell (plain Gnome) still remains as an option at the "gear"...

Could you tell what happens with a gnome-shell --replace at a terminal?

[zerubbabel]

That's really weird... and certainly not caused by updated extensions nor tweaks!!!
I never heard of something like that. Even in systems with unsupported graphics cards the Gnome-shell still remains as an option at the "gear"...

Yes, and I'd really like to know how to restore sanity. Everything was working fine for several days after I applied your tweaks, and then this happened out of the blue, after a reboot. For now I can live with MATE, but I don't like the unsolved mystery.

[esteban1uy]

That's really weird... and certainly not caused by updated extensions nor tweaks!!!
I never heard of something like that. Even in systems with unsupported graphics cards the Gnome-shell still remains as an option at the "gear"...

Yes, and I'd really like to know how to restore sanity. Everything was working fine for several days after I applied your tweaks, and then this happened out of the blue, after a reboot. For now I can live with MATE, but I don't like the unsolved mystery.

As I told you before, that's not a question of tweaks or upgrades, that's something else.

Please, do a gnome-shell --replace at a console an look at the results, then post your findings here.

[zerubbabel]

Please, do a gnome-shell --replace at a console an look at the results, then post your findings here.

Well, I tried that and it said gnome-shell wasn't installed! So strange. So I installed it with "apt-get", then did "gnome-shell --replace" and it restored everything back to how it was before this confusion. This is the terminal output:

zerubbabel@dz ~ $ gnome-shell --replace

(gnome-shell:6135): Clutter-WARNING **: Failed to set the markup of the actor 'ClutterText': Error on line 1: Entity did not end with a semicolon; most likely you used an ampersand character without intending to start an entity - escape ampersand as &

(gnome-shell:6135): Clutter-WARNING **: Attempting to remove actor of type 'ShellGenericContainer' from group of class 'StBoxLayout', but the container is not the actor's parent.

(gnome-shell:6135): Clutter-WARNING **: Attempting to add actor of type 'ShellGenericContainer' to a container of type 'StBoxLayout', but the actor has already a parent of type 'StBoxLayout'.
Window manager warning: Log level 8: shell_tray_manager_manage_stage: assertion `manager->priv->stage == NULL' failed
Window manager warning: Log level 16: Unable to register authentication agent: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject
Window manager warning: Log level 16: Error registering polkit authentication agent: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject (polkit-error-quark 0)
JS LOG: GNOME Shell started at Thu Dec 08 2011 16:05:21 GMT-0800 (PST)

(gnome-shell:6135): St-WARNING **: percentage lengths not currently supported
JS ERROR: !!! Exception was: TypeError: Shell.util_icon_from_string is not a function
JS ERROR: !!! lineNumber = '1300'
JS ERROR: !!! fileName = '"/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js"'
JS ERROR: !!! stack = '"()@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js:1300
("Connection error","gtk-dialog-error")@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js:1281
MultiNotificationSource("Connection error","gtk-dialog-error")@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js:1271
()@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js:474
([object _private_TelepathyGLib_Account],[object _private_GLib_ParamSpec])@/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/telepathyClient.js:461
"'
JS ERROR: !!! message = '"Shell.util_icon_from_string is not a function"'

[esteban1uy]

Well, there's nothing in our tweaks or Mint's updates that can posibly force gnome-shell to uninstall...

But it's good to hear that everything went back to normal.

[zerubbabel]

Well, there's nothing in our tweaks or Mint's updates that can posibly force gnome-shell to uninstall...

But it's good to hear that everything went back to normal.

Yes, thanks for your help!

[Bruce McL]

Just wanted people to know that gnome-shell-reflection extension was updated yesterday. This is the extension that moves the top bar to the bottom. It looks like the updates solve a couple of problems - one with the message area and one with the hot corners. I don't think it will be necessary to hack this version they way it was with the last version.

https://github.com/ahdiaz/gnome-shell-reflection

You can click on the zip button, and then install from Advanced System Settings.

[esteban1uy]

Just wanted people to know that gnome-shell-reflection extension was updated yesterday. This is the extension that moves the top bar to the bottom. It looks like the updates solve a couple of problems - one with the message area and one with the hot corners. I don't think it will be necessary to hack this version they way it was with the last version.

https://github.com/ahdiaz/gnome-shell-reflection

You can click on the zip button, and then install from Advanced System Settings.

That's interesting.

What was fixed:

- When you log into the session the notification tray "pops" for an instant. With the update it doesn't happen anymore.
- Some people liked the top left hot-corner. So the author disabled its removal in reflections and went to the process of creating a separate extension to deal with that.

The rest stays the same (main panel go to the bottom, notification and message tray to the top) so you have to tweak it exactly the way we used to if you want both panels at bottom.
For the moment I'll stick with the old version of reflections because I like the notifications tray showing certain things when I login or resume, and I really don't like that hot-corner (Super-key does exactly the same but more efficiently).

[Daniel4lm]

Just wanted people to know that gnome-shell-reflection extension was updated yesterday. This is the extension that moves the top bar to the bottom. It looks like the updates solve a couple of problems - one with the message area and one with the hot corners. I don't think it will be necessary to hack this version they way it was with the last version.

https://github.com/ahdiaz/gnome-shell-reflection

You can click on the zip button, and then install from Advanced System Settings.

That's interesting.

What was fixed:

- When you log into the session the notification tray "pops" for an instant. With the update it doesn't happen anymore.
- Some people liked the top left hot-corner. So the author disabled its removal in reflections and went to the process of creating a separate extension to deal with that.

The rest stays the same (main panel go to the bottom, notification and message tray to the top) so you have to tweak it exactly the way we used to if you want both
panels at bottom.
For the moment I'll stick with the old version of reflections because I like the notifications tray showing certain things when I login or resume, and I really don't like that hot-corner (Super-key does exactly the same but more efficiently).

You're right, i'll stay also with older versions .

[esteban1uy]

windowlist extension got another regular update (as we announced) so it's time to re-apply its tweak: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=205&t=85775&start=20#p498233
What was fixed?
- Some cosmetics about the window state in the popup menu.

[wilms]

I no longer get the right-click popup menu to minimize or close a window. I'm not sure when or how I lost it.

[Daniel4lm]

An interesting problem, after the applying Zukin shell theme windowlist buttons disappe
ar (totally).
wilms@ Do you use gnome reflection ext.? If you use, check my ext.

UPDQATE: So, I found a solution for Zukini gnome shell theme: edit /.themes/Zukini/gnome-shell/gnome-shell.css and and comment the line 328 (as shown below on picture where the problem is shown).

[wilms]

My problem was with my reflections extension. I didn't lose the windowlist popup, it was just popping down and I didn't notice it until I tried another theme.
One other thing I've noticed is that if I use the gnome-tweak tool to install extensions from github, sometimes I get a message saying it's an invalid extension. I'm sure these extensions will get sorted out over time but it's kinda fun to play with in the meantime and I'm learning a bit.

[torsades]

The new reflections extension works perfect for me. Now what i really need is Auto-hide for the top panel (which is now at the bottom) The current auto-hide extension, when used together with the reflection extension, reduces the reflected panel into a hovering 1 pixel line which can be expanded downwards by careful mouseover. I hope some genius will fix it so that it expands upwards from the bottom screen edge like it should.

I like the panel on the bottom so that it doesn't get in the way of the window buttons, tabs and back buttons especially in firefox. At the same time I need maximum vertical screen real-estate on my 13 inch laptop. For anyone else who wants to conserve vertical pixels, Maximus works really well with gnome shell. (Just remember to disable maximisation of all windows by default in the g-conf settings.) It makes only maximised windows lose their title bar. Perfect for laptops.

The next thing on my wish list is the option to shift the hot corner to the bottom left.

[Bruce McL]

For anyone else who wants to conserve vertical pixels, Maximus works really well with gnome shell. (Just remember to disable maximisation of all windows by default in the g-conf settings.) It makes only maximised windows lose their title bar. Perfect for laptops.

I agree, Maximus is great for saving space. Also, there is a new gnome shell extension that puts the minimize-resize-close buttons in the top bar. It's a good compliment to Maximus.

I started a thread on setting up Mint for a small screen. It has installation instructions for Maximus and a few more tips.

viewtopic.php?f=205&t=88569

[gregzeng]

OP: "It's not yet as flexible, customizable or stable as the good old gnome-panel desktop, but give it some time - it's still early days for gnome-shell and Gnome 3."

Most people will dislike your way of removing Unity. When I tried, it completely crashed and/ or crippled my Unity-based *untu distros.

Gave up on previous 'new' versions of Mints, both *untu & LMDE versions, 32pae & 64bit. Buggy & crippled, as noticed by many reviewers all over WWW. Using Xubuntu 11.10, with 4 hide-able task bars on the four sides of my screen . Wondering if the XFCE version of the new Mint will allow this.

Uncertain why Mint did not try to integrate Cairo or AWN into Gnome2. Some *untus use Docky, but this is worse than my solution of using 4 standard XFCE taskbars. Both Cairo & Docky are better than Unity, so why did Mint avoid it?

Retired CIO (1984), Australian Capital Territory